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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comKeil and Delitzsch Commentary - Proverbs 1:23 - 1:23
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To the call to thoughtfulness which lies in the complaint “How long?” there follows the entreaty:
Turn ye at my reproof!
Behold! I would pour out my Spirit upon you,
I would make you to know my words.
23a is not a clause expressive of a wish, which with the particle expressive of a wish, which is wanting, would be תָּשׁוּבוּ־נָא, or according to Pro 23:1 and Pro 27:23 would be שׁוֹב תָּשׁוּבוּ. The הִנֵּה, introducing the principal clause, stamps 23a as the conditional clause; the relation of the expressions is as Isa 26:10; Job 20:24. תָּשׁוּבוּ
(Note: In the Hagiographa everywhere written plene, with exception of Job 17:10.)
is not equivalent to si convertamini, which would require תִּפְנוּ, but to si revertamini; but לְתוֹכַהְתִּי
(Note: The Metheg belongs to the ת, under which it should be placed (and not to the ל), as the commencing sound of the second syllable before the tone-syllable; cf. Pro 1:25.)
does not therefore mean at my reproof, i.e., in consequence of it (Hitzig, after Num 16:34), but it is a constructio praegnans: turning and placing yourselves under my reproof. With תוכחת there is supposed an ἔλεγχος (lxx, Symm.): bringing proof, conviction, punishment. If they, leaving their hitherto accustomed way, permit themselves to be warned against their wickedness, then would Wisdom cause her words to flow forth to them, i.e., would without reserve disclose and communicate to them her spirit, cause them to know (namely by experience) her words. הִבִּיעַ (from נָבַע, R. נב; vid., Genesis, p. 635) is a common figurative word, expressive of the free pouring forth of thoughts and words, for the mouth is conceived of as a fountain (cf. Pro 18:4 with Mat 12:34), and the ῥῆσις (vid., lxx) as ῥεῦσις; only here it has the Spirit as object, but parallel with דְּבָרַי, thus the Spirit as the active power of the words, which, if the Spirit expresses Himself in them, are πνεῦμα καὶ ζωή, Joh 6:63. The addresses of Wisdom in the Book of Proverbs touch closely upon the discourses of the Lord in the Logos-Gospel. Wisdom appears here as the fountain of the words of salvation for men; and these words of salvation are related to her, just as the λόγοι to the divine λόγος expressing Himself therein.